Dispensing package with resilient block



March 23, 1965 G. REINER DISPENSING PACKAGE WITH RESILIENT BLOCK Filed Dec. 4. 1961 INVENTOR GEORGE REINER BY MW ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,174,654 DISPENSKNG PACKAGE WITH RESILIENT BLOCK George Rciner, 225 E. 70th St., New York, N.Y. Filed Dec. 4, 1961, Ser. No. 156,761 3 Claims. (Cl. 222-214) This invention relates to an improved device for storage of powder and the like.

An important obiect of this invention is to provide an improved package for individual portions of powder and the like, which is compact in size and adaptable to storage of the material over a considerable period of time, at the same time being suitable for convenient one-shot dispensing of the material.

Another object of this invention is to provide a package of the above-described type wherein the dispensing device is non-metallic, need not be manufactured with precision, and is easy and economical to produce and to assemble in the package.

The invention has particular application to a container including a pair of fiat, fiexible, opposing walls having their outer edge portions secured together, said walls being optionally diagonally scored to define a tear-off corner, the removal of which discloses an opening between the walls to the outside. Such container may be made of metal foil, plastic film or other suitable material. The container may hold an individual portion of powder or other suitable material. It is intended that once the package has been opened, it will ordinarily be used a single time to dispense material therefrom, and will then be disposed of.

In accordance with the invention, a relatively flat block having opposed, generally parallel and generally flat end faces and a peripheral wall is disposed within the con tainer. The height of the block is small in comparison to the diameter of the end faces. The block is made of flexible and resilient material of the character of material such as sponge rubber, foam rubber and foam polyurethane. The block is compressible and resilient in the direction between its end faces. Said block is disposed in the container with the end faces of the block respectively in frictional flush abutment with the respective walls of the container.

The block normally holds the walls of the container spaced apart. The container is preferably of size permittin g it to be hand held; and said walls may be pressed against the end faces to compress the block and thereby expel powder through the opening formed by removal of the tear-off corner. The block is active upon release of the wall to return the container to its normal condition.

It will be apparent that the block serves as a spring which is extremely economical to manufacture and nonmetallic. An advantage of the block is that it need not be disposed in a precise location within the container. Furthermore, the block will tend by its very shape to become automatically oriented in the desired position with its end faces flush with the walls of the container. Accordingly, the assembly of the block within the container, prior to sealing of the container, is extremely simple.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description, in conjunction with the annexed drawing, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of PEG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a section on the diagonal line 33 of FIG. 1, the tear-off corner being removed and the container being compressed so as to expel a portion of the contents therefrom.

ice

FIG. 4 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of a second embodiment of the invention.

The drawings are generally to slightly enlarged scale of a working model of the invention, and reference is made to the drawing to complete the disclosure herein.

Upon reference to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawing in detail, it will be noted that they show a container adapted to hold a quantity of powder or other like material 9 to be dispensed. Container 10 includes a pair of fiat, flexible opposing walls 11 and 12. These walls 11 and 12 may be made of any appropriate material, such as metal foil or paper. Said walls 11 and 12 may be of any appropriate like size and shape, optionally shown in the drawing as square. Said walls 11 and 12 are held together by a continuous peripheral edge seam 13 so as to seal the interior space of the container. Seam 13 may be formed by any suitable means (not shown).

Optionally, to facilitate the dispensing of the powder 9, opposing diagonal score lines 14 are formed in the respective walls 11 and 12. Score lines 14 extend diagonally across the peripheral seam 13 and also across a portion of the walls located interiorly of seam 13-, as shown in FIG. 1. Optionally, notches 15 are formed in the walls 11 and 12 at the ends of score line 14 in order to facilitate tearing of the container along score line 14. The score line 14 defines a tear-off corner 10a outwardly of the score line, which may be torn off from the rest of the container along score line 14 to define an opening 16 between the walls and to the outside. FIG. 3 shows the tear corner 10a removed to expose the opening 16.

It will be understood that the container 16 may be filled with powder 9 prior to the completion of sealing of scam 13. In addition, block 20 may be inserted be tween the walls 11 and 12 prior to completion of scam 13.

Said block 20 is relatively flat and has opposed, generally parallel and generally flat end faces 21 and 22 and a peripheral wall 23. The height of block 20, or in other words, the distance between end faces 21 and 22, is relatively small in comparison to the diameter of said end faces 21 and 22. Said block 20 may have any convenient cross sectional shape, such as the circular cross sectional shape shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In other words, block 2t} may optionally be cylindrical.

Block 20 is made of flexible and resilient material such as sponge rubber, foam rubber, foam polyurethane or material of like character and quality. Block 20 is compressible and resilient in the direction between its end faces 21 and 22.

Block 20 is disposed in container 10 preferably generally centrally thereof, with end faces 21 and 22 respectively in frictional flush abutment with walls 11 and 12. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, block 20 normally holds walls 21 and 22 spaced apart. Block 2% is normally substantially uncompressed. While block 20 occupies a substantial portion of the interior volume of the container, ample space is left to be filled wholly or partly with the powder 9.

While container 10 may be of any appropriate size, preferably it is of the size to permit it to be hand held and to contain at least an individual one-shot portion of the powder.

In use, after the tear-0E corner 10a is removed to expose opening 16, container 10 may be grasped between fingers and 31 shown in phantom view in FIG. 3, with the fingers 30 and 31 registering with the end faces 21 and 22 of block 20. Fingers 30 and 31 may be used to press walls 11 and 12 against the end faces 21 and 22 so as to compress block 20 as shown in FIG. 3, and thereby expel some of the powder 9 through the opening 16, as indicated at 9a.

It will be apparent that upon release of the container by the fingers 30 and 31, the block 20 will return to its normal position of FIGS. 1 and 2, thereby returning the container to its normal condition and drawing in a charge of air through opening 16, suflicient to compensate for the volume of powder which has been removed. It will be further apparent that the container may again be compressed so asto expel a further charge of powder through opening 16, and this process may be continued several times until a sufiicient amount of powder has been dispensed.

It will be further apparent that the package may be readily assembled, that the block 20 may be readily and economically fabricated, and that the shape of block 20 is such as to cause it almost automatically to assume its desired orientation as shown in the drawing. The relative shape and size of biock 20 and Wells 11 and 12 and the compressibility of block 20 are Such that block 20 cannot be inserted between walls 11 and 12 without compression of block 20, except in its orientation shown in the drawing. Because of the economy of the package, it can readily be used to store a charge of powder or the like 9 for a single use.v Of course, it will be understood that the container may be designed for more than a single dispensing operation, for example, by providing means for sealing the opening 16.

The embodiment of FIG 4- is entirely similar to the first embodiment, and need not be described in, detail, except to state that the container Walls 41) and '41 are made of transparent plastic film. Optionally, the film may be opaque.

While I have disclosed preferred embodiments of the invention, and have indicated various changes, omissions and additions which may be made therein, it will be apparent that various other changes, omissions and additions may be made in the invention without departing from the scope and spirit thereof.

What is claimed is: a

1. In a device for dispensing powder-like material, a container adapted to hold a quantity of the material to ble, opposing upper and lower tearable walls having their outer edge portions secured together, said walls being daigonally scored to define a tear-off corner the removal of which exposes an opening between the walls to the outside, said walls being adapted to be spread apart to be spaced a selected amount, a relatively flat block having opposed, generally parallel and generally flat end faces and a peripheral wall, said end faces being of generally uniform diameter substantially greater than said selected wall spacing, the maximum height of said block being substantially as great as said selected wall spacing, said block being made of flexible and resilient material of the character of such materialsas foam rubber, sponge rubber or foam polyurethane, said block being compressible and resilient in the direction beween its end faces, said block being disposed in said container with the end faces of said block in unconnected, frictional flush abutment with the respective Walls of said container, the crosssectional area of said block being such as to space the center of said walls apart a distance equal to said selected amount and to causethe walls to taper outward to a thin edge for one orientation of said block without compression thereof and being such as not to fit withinrsaid container I without compression thereof for any other orientation of said bloclcsaid container being of a size to permit it to be hand held, said walls being pressable against said end faces to compress said block and at the same time expel powder through said opening, said block being active upon release of said walls to return the container to its spaced 7 apart condition.

2. A container according to claim 1, said walls beingmade of metal foil.

3. A device according to claim 1,

said walls being made of plastic film.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Stossel Nov. 28, 1961 

1. IN A DEVICE FOR DISPENSING POWDER-LIKE MATERIAL, A CONTAINER ADAPTED TO HOLD A QUANTITY OF THE MATERIAL TO BE DISPENSED, SAID CONTAINER INCLUDING A PAIR OF FLAT, FLEXIBLE, OPPOSING UPPER AND LOWER TEARABLE WALLS HAVING THEIR OUTER EDGE PORTIONS SECURED TOGETHER, SAID WALLS BEING DIAGONALLY SCORED TO DEFINE A TEAR-OFF CORNER THE REMOVAL OF WHICH EXPOSES AN OPENING BETWEEN THE WALLS TO THE OUTSIDE, SAID WALLS BEING ADAPTED TO BE SPREAD APART TO BE SPACED A SELECTED AMOUNT, A RELATIVELY FLAT BLOCK HAVING OPPOSED, GENERALLY PARALLEL AND GENERALLY FLAT END FACES AND A PERIPHERAL WALL, SAID END FACES BEING OF GENERALLY UNIFORM DIAMETER SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER THAN SAID SELECTED WALL SPACING, THE MAXIMUM HEIGHT OF SAID BLOCK BEING SUBSTANTIALLY AS GREAT AS SAID SELECTED WALL SPACING, SAID BLOCK BEING MADE OF FLEXIBLE AND RESILIENT MATERIAL OF THE CHARACTER OF SUCH MATERIALS AS FOAM RUBBER, SPONGE RUB BER OR FOAM POLYURETHANE, SAID BLOCK BEING COMPRESSIBLE AND RESILIENT IN THE DIRECTION BETWEEN ITS END FACES, SAID BLOCK BEING DISPOSED IN SAID CONTAINER WITH THE END FACES OF SAID BLOCK IS UNCONNECTED, FRICTIONAL FLUSH ABUTMENT WITH THE RESPECTIVE WALLS OF SAID CONTAINER, THE CROSSSECTIONAL AREA OF SAID BLOCK BEING SUCH AS TO SPACE THE CENTER OF SAID WALLS APART A DISTANCE EQUAL TO SAID SELECTED AMOUNT AND TO CAUSE THE WALLS TO TAPER OUTWARD TO A THIN EDGE FOR ONE ORIENTATION OF SAID BLOCK WITHOUT COMPRESSION THEREOF AND BEING SUCH AS NOT TO FIT WITHIN SAID CONTAINER WITHOUT COMPRESSION THEREOF FOR ANY OTHER ORIENTATION OF SAID BLOCK, SAID CONTAINER BEING OF A SIZE TO PERMIT IT TO BE HAND HELD, SAID WALLS, BEING PRESSSABLE AGAINST SAID END FACES TO COMPRESS SAID BLOCK AND AT THE SAME TIME EXPEL POWDER THROUGH SAID OPENINGS, SAID BLOCK BEING ACTIVE UPON RELEASE OF SAID WALLS TO RETURN THE CONTAINER TO ITS SPACED APART CONDITION. 